{"id":7562,"date":"2016-02-01T17:20:29","date_gmt":"2016-02-01T17:20:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=7562"},"modified":"2016-02-01T17:20:29","modified_gmt":"2016-02-01T17:20:29","slug":"rock-solid-strike-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=7562","title":{"rendered":"‘Rock solid’ strike action"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Solid strike action by crane operators at Ainscough, the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s biggest crane hire firm today (February 1) caused near total shutdown of operations.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Less than 10 of the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 500 cranes left its 30 depots \u00e2\u20ac\u201c from Plymouth to Falkirk \u00e2\u20ac\u201c as crane operators and support staff were out in force striking over an ongoing pay dispute.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 500 members voted overwhelmingly for strike action with 90 per cent voting in favour on an 83 per cent turnout to reject the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pitiful two year pay deal. Over 90 per cent voted for action short of strike.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAinscough has been sent a clear warning today by the workforce. Our members demand fair treatment for their hard work,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Bernard McAuley, Unite national officer for construction.<\/p>\n

Today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s strike action is the first in a series of escalating actions planned over the coming weeks through to 23 March and a programme of overtime bans started on 30 January and will end on 20 March.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe company needs to get back to the negotiating table ready to reach an amicable settlement to resolve this long running dispute,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 added Bernard.<\/p>\n

Efforts by Unite to bring peace to the dispute could now be soured by Ainscough\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attempts to introduce zero hours contracts to this safety critical industry, undermining the existing collective agreement.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur members are highly skilled professionals, operating cranes on some of the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s largest construction projects, including the Forth Road Bridge, aircraft carriers in Rosyth and UK-wide rail infrastructure projects,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Bernard.<\/p>\n

Ainscough recently made around 24 redundancies across its crane hire business, however after Christmas the company then started engaging former employees on a zero hour contract basis at \u00c2\u014115 per hour.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe fear that the drive to lower pay for the workforce won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stop with this pay offer. We are extremely concerned that Ainscough is now drawing up plans to rip up the industry-wide agreement by introducing zero hours contracts for a pool of workers,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Bernard.<\/p>\n

These workers will then be on zero hours ‘hire-and-fire’ contracts reducing them to a disposable workforce, which could have serious safety implications for what is already one of the most dangerous industries in the country.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis makes an utter mockery of Ainscough\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s motto \u00e2\u20ac\u0098safety before profit\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, but it will also put the company at risk of winning future public works contracts in Scotland where Unite is working hard to ensure that the government there sticks to its promise to ensure zero hours working is not normal practice,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 added Bernard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Solid strike action by crane operators at Ainscough, the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s biggest crane hire firm today (February 1) caused near total shutdown of operations.   Less than 10 of the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 500 cranes left its 30 depots \u00e2\u20ac\u201c from Plymouth to Falkirk \u00e2\u20ac\u201c as crane operators and support staff were out in force striking over an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6622,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[132],"wps_subtitle":"Crane operators walk out in pay dispute","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7562"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7562"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7563,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7562\/revisions\/7563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}